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A SERMON 



DELIVERED BY 



Rev. John W. Sayers 

Department Chaplain 

ON SUNDAY JULY 1st, 1894 

AT THE 

Encampment of the Dept. of Pennsylvania 

GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC. 
QETTY5BURQ, FA. 



TsiSb 



SERMON. 



Hitherto hath the Lord helped vs.— I Sam. 



vn : 12. 



Samuel was one of the most remarkable men of any 
age of the world. From his birth, through long years 
until his death, his life is a study for the philosopher and 
statesman, and an example to all men who would fulfil a 
useful mission in the world. Dedicated before his birth 
to the office of a Nazarite, he was, at a tender age, conse- 
crated in the tabernacle to the order of the Jewish priest- 
hood. He was the last of the Judges of Israel and the 
first in the line of succession of the prophets. In his 
childhood, while sleeping in the Tabernacle, God revealed 
to him in a vision the calamity which would befall the 
house of Eli. He saw the sad realization of that vision, 
and witnessed the miseries of Israel during the following 
years of their forgetfulness of God and their disobedience 
to His laws. He warned his people against their idolatry, 
secured their promise of repentance, and gathered them 
together at Mizpah for a reconsecration, where, by liba- 
tions, fastings and prayer, they renewed their covenants to 
God. At this well-remembered spot', just twenty years 
before, the Philistines had attacked and overcome them 
with great slaughter, leaving thirty thousand of their 
footmen dead upon the field. This same enemy had heard 
of their second assemblage at Mizpah, and had again come 
up against them to do battle. 

Israel was unprepared for fight. Their mission was one 
of humiliation and repentance, and not of war. . Unarmed, 
and in the presence of hostile forces, they realized, in' 
their extremity, that nothing but divine intervention could 
help them. They called upon Samuel, who prayed earn- 
estly and made sacrifice unto God in their behalf, and God 



heard and answered his prayer by a great thunder, which 
discomfited the enemy and gave victory to Israel. Samuel 
commemorated this event by setting up a stone, and call- 
ing it Ebenezer, saying, in the words of the text, 

"Hitherto the Lord hath helped us." 

These words start the thought that God dealt with 
Israel as He dealt and is still dealing with us. Events, 
easily traced through their career, may, as we shall pres- 
ently see, as easily find their counterpart in our own his- 
tory. We can but make them a subject of serious inquiry, 
in order that their experience may serve us in similar 
straights against the calamities they suffered, and preserve 
us against the temptations to which they so easily yielded. 
Samuel saw the close of the theocracy, a government in 
which, since the days of Moses, God had been recognized 
as the Supreme Ruler. Against his better judgment, he 
bowed to the will of the people, and anointed Saul as the 
first King over Israel. He lived to witness Saul's down- 
fall, and anointed David his successor. 

There was both far-reaching faith and retrospect in 
Samuel's reply or declaration. The Lord had wonderfully 
helped Israel through years of obedience, and had merci- 
fully borne with them in long seasons of disobedience. 
He had fulfilled his promise to Abraham by bringing his 
descendants to their .home in the Land of Canaan. There 
had been dreadful servitude in Egypt, long wanderings 
through the wilderness, hard fightings in even the land of 
promise and of hope. Sufferings and privations had been 
their lot during many years ; all through whieh the re- 
markable providence of God had left the history of His 
people overflowing with recollection of mercies, deliver- 
ances and Divine interpositions, enough to have secured 
ages of loving trust and obedience. Forgetfulness and 
ingratitude, those dominating sins of the human heart, 
had led Israel far into disregard of the terms upon which 
they were to possess the land. 






£ ^ "3 i * *n. 



They neglected to subdue it. They forgot the com- 
mand, given upon Mount Sinai, "Thou shalt have no 
other God before me." They had not kept themselves 
apart from the enemies of Jehovah, but had associated 
with them and followed their wicked devices. It required 
frequent punishment and oft-threatened dangers to recall 
their allegiance to the old faith. In these great straights, 
they pleaded for mercy, and it was freely given. They in- 
voked God's blessing, and His banner over them was love. 
Upon the very eve of destruction they prayed for deliver- 
ance, and the finger of the Almighty stirred the elements to 
the discomfiture of their enemies. So, Samuel set up the 
"Stone of Help," a crude and simple monument, com- 
memorative of God's helpful presence in the hour of ex- 
tremity. His forbearance with Israel had been very great. 
They were His chosen people. Through them all the 
families of the earth were to be blest. Through Moses, 
the L,aw-Giver, was to come the enlightened legislation 
which was to form the basis of all the humanizing codes 
of the future. From the lineage of David was to come 
the Messiah, and, through that line, was to be established 
and perpetuated the evangelizing processes through which 
all nations are yet to be lifted up toward God. They were 
to cast upon the water of Galilee the seeds of civil and 
religious liberty, which, after many days, should come 
back to all shores in the blessings of ^ree and enlightened 
government. They were to establish for the coming ages 
a creed of faith and obedience which they themselves 
should, for a time, forget, but which shall be embraced 
again, at their great rejoicing, when the song of their har- 
vest home shall be sung upon their restoration to the be- 
loved land from which they have so long been wandering. 
Samuel's words were retrospective in expression, but 
deeply prophetic in their meaning. "Hitherto" was an 
electric flash of retrospect over nearly nine hundred years 
of Israelitish history, from Mizpah back to Ur of the 
Chaldees. It was also, by implication, a prophecy to all 



coming time, a warning against national wickedness, a 
promise of Divine protection to be secured only by obedi- 
ence to God's commandments. 

From trie hour that God said to Abraham, "Get thee 
out of thy country," forward to the intercession of Samuel 
at Mizpah, Israel had been wonderfully helped and mi- 
raculously delivered. Through famine and plenty, through 
slavery and freedom, through wanderings and restings, 
through war and peace, through disobedience and faith, 
they had never been forsaken. 

How wonderful the providence ! He had not dealt so 
with any nation. Notwithstanding these mercies and de- 
liverances, how long would His forbearance continue if 
sin should predominate ? This stone of help should be a 
constant reminder both of deliverance in the past and pos- 
sible danger in the future. It is a monument set up for 
us of the present, a perpetual warning against unfaithful- 
ness as emphatic as it was for Israel before it reached the 
height of national grandeur under Solomon. We are to 
draw our lesson from this great truth to-day. To no other 
nation since Israel have the words of the text applied with 
greater significance than to us. To no other have the 
warnings of danger from disobedience to God applied with 
greater force. Indeed, between the Hebrew history and 
our own there runs a parallelism which becomes to us a 
matter of interesting and instructive contemplation. (Be- 
tween their civil institutions, where enlightened principles 
of government were intermingled with divine revelation, 
and the growth of our policy upon the basis of that reve- 
lation, there is a striking resemblance?) With faith in the 
divinity in man, we are stretching out toward the infinite 
in humanity. Israel went out from a land of physical 
bondage into a land where God had promised that they 
should become a free and mighty nation. 

They wandered through the wilderness before their des- 
tination was reached. Before they could occupy the coun- 
try which was to be their home, they had to subdue the 



land. Their progress from Egypt to their abiding-place 
among the hills of Palestine became marked by historical 
epochs almost typical of the world's great future. So the 
pioneers of our civilization came out of a land of spiritual 
bondage into an uncultivated wilderness where the corn- 
fields were to be carved from the primeval forests, where 
the pathways were to be hewn through rocky hillsides 
which had remained in undisturbed repose since the crea- 
tion, where freedom was to expand her wings and rise to 
heights hitherto unattained, where national independence 
and an abiding-place for true liberty were to be conquered 
from the domain of a savage and merciless foe. The 
Israelites early provided for the education of their children 
under learned and experienced teachers. They set up their 
tabernacle for religious worship in the wilderness. They 
drew their laws from divine revelation, and for defence 
formed a confederacy of eleven tribes and two half-tribes, 
and codified the foundation principles of their government 
into a written constitution. So the founders of our Re- 
public built schoolhouses for education in the midst of the 
woodlands and erected churches for worship on the hill- 
sides. They enacted laws for their government based 
upon the decalogue, and for mutual protection formed a 
confederacy of thirteen independent States. By a written 
constitution (the second only in the history of nations) 
they bound these States together into an indissoluble 
union. In our early history, weak in numbers and inex- 
perienced in war, we prevailed over stronger foes, and, 
trusting in the God of hosts, we became a worshiping and 
religious people. Surely, God has helped us. Go back in 
our history and trace the remarkable providences that have 
proved our help, moulded our institutions and established 
us as a Government of the people. 

The Genoese discoverer and the Spanish cavalier brought 
with them religious faith and the aggressive spirit of 
missionary zeal, but it was the religion of superstition and 
bigotry, and the bloody zeal of a spiritual bondage which 



6 

bowed the neck to the thraldom of an established church. 
For four hundred years it has not given to the territory 
that it conquered a much better civilization than it found. 
It has not lifted men above the brutality of unsanctified 
nature, nor drawn them away from the narrowing influ- 
ences of a false worship. It has not raised them to their 
higher estate under the liberty of the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ. Spain colonized the West Indies, conquered Mex- 
ico, and carried her victories, together with her undesirable 
religion, into South America. God seemed to hold in 
abeyance her baneful influence North of the Rio Grande. 
Who that reads history can doubt God's providence to- 
ward us in this? Over this land, upon which religious 
and civil liberty were to find their highest development, 
the shield of Divine protection was held. For more than 
a century the angel of the covenant stood at the Southern 
gate with flaming sword, until the evangel planted- the 
banner of the cross in the midst of the little colony at 
Jamestown. 

The advent was not heralded by sound of trumpet nor 
established by force. It came not under the parade of 
bigoted religionists nor was it accomplished by spiritual 
adventurers. It was not attended by zealous missionaries. 
It was the spontaneous emanation from the silent and un- 
conscious influence of the representatives of a nation 
already partly imbued with the spirit of the Gospel of 
Christ. Between 1607 and 1776 many serious civil and 
religious differences among the settlers from various na- 
tionalities had to be settled by the colonists, in all of 
which the finger of the Almighty seemed steadily pointing 
toward freedom of conscience and deeper religious convic- 
tion. Here, amid all the terrors and desolations of an un- 
relenting border warfare, Christianity became the genius 
of the people and numbered its triumphs in the midst of 
the most adverse circumstances. In every settlement, 
however humble, churches and schoolhouses sprung up, 
spreading refinement, education and faith in God among 



the masses, thus preparing the way for the Declaration of 
Independence. 

Through all the adversities of the War of .he Revolu- 
tion, through the privations of the camp and the sufferings 
of the battlefield, in the contentions of a few feeble colo- 
nies against the oldest, best-organized and most powerful 
nation of the earth, the Lord was helping us. There was 
the steady unfolding of a fixed purpose, then not even 
comprehended, but now clearly seen, in which, under God, 
the people were building the foundations of a mighty 
empire, deeper and better than they knew. Who that has 
read the story can doubt the providence that directed this 
nation in that most critical and fearful struggle? The 
war was over, and victory came with an exhausted ex- 
chequer, an unpaid army, ah enfeebled semblance of Gov- 
ernment, a dissatisfied and distrustful people and a stormy 
political outlook. The fretful and fitful period between 
the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution was the 
most trying epoch of American history. The country was 
upon the verge of dissolution, sailing between monarchy 
and anarchy. Who that has followed the Federal Conven- 
tion through its dissensions, and can realize the weakness 
of a Government exhausted by war and held together only 
by a rope of sand, can for a moment doubt that a Pilot of 
more than human attributes stood at the helm and guided 
the ship through the dangerous channels of that perilous 
transition. When shattered finances had to be restored by 
unwonted monetary skill, when international confidence 
had to be secured by the most heroic methods, when a lost 
commerce had to be won again, gathered up, indeed, from 
the debris of a thousand wrecks, even from the grasp of 
red-handed piracy, the genius of man was inadequate to 
the task. From many a devout Christian heart, from 
many a God-fearing household, there went up to Heaven 
earnest prayers for deliverance. Even those who were 
unaccustomed to prayer appealed to Almighty power for 
help in their distress, and God heard and signally answered 



their petitions. Through the light of present revelation, 
we look over the storm-tossed waters and realize that none 
but the Voice that calmed the midnight tempest on the 
Sea of Galilee could still the howling winds and dashing 
waters that threatened the life of the young republic. 

The Constitution was the rainbow that succeeded the 
storm. It was God's pledge of promise to the newborn 
nation, provided it proved faithful to its sacred trusts. It 
was the harbinger of a glory not yet attained, but to be 
realized upon conditions of obedience to God and trust in 
His omnipotence. " Hitherto hath the Lord helped us " 
was the acknowledgment of every Christian soul, when 
the fearful ordeal of reconstruction had been safely passed. 
The wisdom of our statesmen, through Divine help, had 
conquered and secured for us a season of rest and recuper- 
ation. 

A short period for growth and development (a quarter of 
a century) passed, when war again clouded the sky. The 
result proved that the Lord was still upon our side, and 
that Christian equality and free institutions, as with the 
Hebrew Commonwealth, had found favor in His sight. 
Still, we had not purged ourselves from blood-guiltiness 
before the Omnipotent Judge of human actions. We had 
but weakly struggled against an evil that we were not 
strong enough to control. It had become a cloud, no 
longer lingering along the horizon, but was now mounting 
upward toward the heavens. 

Human slavery, that political leprosy which was slowly 
destroying, to the very bone, the flesh of independence, 
which had shrivelled the strength of manhood, palsied the 
God-given will of men and oppressed the soul, still existed 
under the protection of our laws. The taskmaster cut the 
cruel lash into the flesh of the bondman, while the owner 
bartered the life-blood of both men and women in the 
market for lucre. It was in vain that philanthropic and 
enlightened men protested against the iniquities of the 
unnatural institution. It was in vain that the genius of 



9 

liberty wept over our inconsistencies. It was in vain that 
the world before which we paraded onr civil institutions 
as an example pointed at us the finger of scorn and poured 
upon us the epithets of contempt. Slavery existed, flour- 
ished, and continued to secure additional favor from our 
National Legislature. It was the one blood-spot upon our 
escutcheon, which, like the mark upon Cain, told the 
world of our disgrace, without bringing vengeance upon 
us for our sins. Those interested in the perpetuation of 
this great civil wrong became defiant, as human advance- 
ment threw the searchlight of progress upon its iniquities, 
while the indifferent friends of liberty, like the nominal 
friends of God, remained at ease in Zion. 

The Ark of God's Covenant with the American nation 
had not yet found its permanent resting-place. The insti- 
tutions which were to give permanence to our nationality 
were not settled beyond peradventure. Our national sins 
had not been entirely forsaken. We still worshipped the 
strange gods of a foreign land. The time arrived when 
we must destroy this great idol or be ourselves destroyed 
by the false worship under which we bowed down be- 
fore it. 

Hitherto the L,ord had helped us ; but a culminating 
point had been reached when His help was once more 
needed, and when His help alone could save us from de- 
struction. Now, that help would not come uncondition- 
ally, would not come without great sacrifice upon our part, 
the sacrifice of life, of blood and suffering. Out of the 
centre of that great iniquity God evolved the storm. 
Along its fiery pathway the friends of treason, disunion 
and secession hissed their dreadful threatenings. Rebel- 
lion, like a cyclone, swept through the South, and on up 
toward the geographical boundaries that separated slavery 
from freedom. " But thus far shalt thou come," said the 
fiat, "and here shall defeat and discomfiture arrest, thy 
onward march." 



10 

The great proclamation of January, 1863, at the conclu- 
sion of which President Lincoln added, " I invoke the con- 
siderate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of 
Almighty God," established before the nations the justice 
of our cause and gave earnest of a governmental power 
which relied upon the assistance of Heaven and which 
would yield to no defeat. It was the great thunder at 
Mizpah re-echoed at Washington, which went reverber- 
ating over the hills and along the valleys and down the 
rivers of our country until the sounds were lost in the 
dashing waves of the great waters which bound our con- 
tinent upon every side. God set at naught every infamous 
scheme for the destruction of our Government and decreed 
that the links of our chain of union, forged from triple 
bars of steel should never be broken. 

" He had sounded forth the trumpet that should never call retreat ; 
He was sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat." 

Out of that rebellion came freedom to the slave ; out of 
it came the genius of liberty ; out of it came a greater 
humanity and a more earnest and fervent Christianity. 
Out of it came a purer patriotism and a more profound 
reverence for our National institutions. Out of it grew 
that important and useful brotherhood — The Grand 
Army of the Republic ! 

The close of the Revolutionary War and the close of 
the War of the Rebellion exhibited marked contrast in 
the condition of the public mind. The patriotism was as 
pure and the instinct of fraternity was as great in both 
cases ; but between the two periods there had grown up 
an abiding faith in the ability of the people to rule, and a 
profound conviction of the stability of a Government 
founded upon the brotherhood of humanity. 

The officers of the Continental Army associated them- 
selves as the "Order of the Cincinnati," to perpetuate their 
traditions as companions in arms. Like Cincinnatus, they 
had been called from the plough, had served their country 



11 

faithfully, and were about to return to their homes. They 
wanted to preserve old memories by fraternal union, but 
left out of their consideration the rank and file, who had 
encountered with them the danger, shared the privations, 
and won the victories of the war. The country received 
the proposition with cold distrust. The people denounced 
it as a dangerous innovation upon Republicanism. The 
State Legislature censured it as unwise and mischievous. 
Not so at the close of the Rebellion. There was no dis- 
trust at the organization of the Grand Army of the Re- 
public. The country was proud of the achievements of 
its arms, and grateful to the men who had offered their 
lives in defence of the flag. They hailed the new brother- 
hood as a guarantee of patriotic devotion to the Constitu- 
tion, and they have never been deceived. Twenty-eight 
years of peaceful organization have sufficiently demon- 
strated their loyalty and usefulness. It was the stone of 
help set up at Mizpah, and, as to-day we call it to remem- 
brance, and look back upon its history, we are led to ex- 
claim, " Hitherto the Lord hath helped us." 

This brief historical outline, suggested by both the 
occasion and the text, leads to the belief that in the order 
of God's providence, this nation has its mission to the 
world in the lifting up of men to a higher condition than 
ever heretofore attained. God's prophets have looked for- 
ward to a period when this world shall indeed be a fore- 
taste of the world that is to come, when man shall form 
one universal brotherhood — happy, loving and holy. The 
Church of God, in its drawing together in Christian fel- 
lowship, in its broad sympathies and divine and heavenly 
aspirations, realizes the possibility of such an earthly 
state. Israel had received the high commission from 
divine authority to introduce this millenial condition to 
the world. Jerusalem was a type of Heaven, the temple 
was God's dwelling-place, the Shekinah was the visible 
manifestation of deity, from which His oracles were audi- 
bly delivered. There God revealed, through inspired 



12 

prophets, His will concerning men. What a glorious 
mission ! But it failed through disobedience and sin, and 
left the God-given work incomplete. Had Israel been 
true to its trust, the civilization of the world would have 
been as far in advance of the present as we are in advance 
of the religious and social condition of a thousand years 
ago. But for sin, the Golden City might still have been 
the glory and crown of Mount Zion. Its magnificent tem- 
ple might still have reflected back to Heaven the glory of 
the rising sun. Her fields would not have been desolate, 
her people scattered like chaff, nor her once-powerful Gov- 
ernment groaning under the yoke of a debasing and tyran- 
nical power. Let us inquire into God's will concerning 
us. It is manifest in all our past history as well as in our 
present advanced position. Through us, if obedient to 
His will, all the nations of the earth may be blessed. 
Through disobedience our fate may be as sad and our 
downfall as complete as that of Israel. It may be said 
with emphasis, whether by way of warning or of prophecy, 
that this nation can never forget God and continue to 
exist as a Government of the people. It can never lay 
aside the Bible and cater to infidelity ; it can never, from 
false conceptions of liberality, yield its hold upon the Sab- 
bath Day, and offer its sacrifices upon the altars of iniquity, 
and still fulfil its mission to mankind. The world is 
groping for light, as it never did since the eyes of our first 
parents were opened to the distinction between good and 
evil. Science and philosophy are carefully analyzing the 
motives and inducements which lead to sin and misery, 
shame and crime. Moralists are trying to evolve from the 
confused mass some universal method that will both pre- 
vent and cure. There can be no political panacea for all 
these evils. The law can restrain and punish offences ; 
philanthropy can alleviate much of suffering ; charity can 
relieve distress and drive want from the door, Christian 
sympathy can comfort and console, but nothing but the 
blood of Christ can cleanse the world from sin. The 



13 

Church of God is working earnestly for that unification of 
humanity which shall bring all lives into sympathizing 
touch with each other and shall add to all the wondrous 
touch of that life which said, " Come unto me, all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 

The political world, too, is looking toward the lifting up 
of men, in its desire for universal peace. While wicked- 
ness is in the hearts of rulers, national difficulties will 
probably be settled by the sword. War may have its pur- 
poses, but Governments are recognizing that better and 
more effective methods may be found in peaceful adjust- 
ments. Happy will it be for nations when they " beat 
their swords into ploughshares and their spears into prim- 
ing-hooks, and learn war no more." It is a hopeful sign 
that the tendency of the world is in this direction. 

At our great Exposition at Chicago there were exhibited 
the latest military improvements, both for defence and 
offence ; fearful engines for the destruction of life and 
property ; models for tremendous naval structures which 
made the war vessels of a few years ago appear like frail 
toys ; of harbor and inland fortifications that seemed to the 
casual observer almost impregnable ; ponderous guns, ca- 
pable of carrying their destructive force into cities and 
against defences miles away ; small arms for close engage- 
ments, and equipments and appliances for rapid move- 
ments upon both land and sea — all seemingly for the anni- 
hilation of hostile forces. But, terrible as they appeared, 
they are not without another and brighter side. Are they 
not, as well, messengers of universal peace ? With such 
destructive implements, battles must be fought at longer 
range. Victories will no longer be won by superior force, 
nor by the persistence of human courage. Scientific skill, 
with mechanically perfect implements, which leave the 
human unit out of the computation, will be the agencies 
that will determine the issue. Men will not willingly 
fight against machinery, for courage will find but little 
credit in the account. The art of war itself is therefore 



14 

becoming the strongest argument for trie settlement of 
national disputes by peaceful arbitration. 

You will all agree with me that the world has had 
enough of war, and only needs peace for the advancement 
of future civilization. The course of empire rolling west- 
ward has doubtless made this new world the field of 
triumph upon which the great battles of peace are yet to 
be fought, and where God's Kingdom upon earth is to be 
established. The gathering of nations upon our soil, each 
bringing the tribute of its best skill, our standing face to 
face in social contact with all nationalities, our mingling 
of voices, our communion of thought, our sincere welcome 
to* all, our rejoicing together, has only been equalled by 
the great chorus of the morning stars, when all the sons of 
God shouted for joy. It is to us an earnest that in America 

"There shall be sung another golden age, 
The rise of empire and of arts." 

"Hitherto hath the Iyord helped us." Upon our obedi- 
ence to His will now depends the issues of the future. 
The text has for us its prophetic warnings. Israel had its 
rise and fall. Over the fields of lovely Palestine, that land 
of promise and of rest, under whose fair skies the children 
of Abraham were to dwell and become mighty, where the 
God of their fathers was to be worshipped in the beauty of 
holiness — over that land sin and disobedience have cast 
their baneful shadow ; upon its beautiful plains, where 
peace could have found an eternal resting-place and God's 
people an abiding home, the world's great armies have for 
ages marched back and forth, destroying the fig tree and 
the vine, and drenching the earth with the warm life-blood 
of millions of creatures created in God's image. Israel 
had been helped until repeated perverseness had forfeited 
their claims to divine protection. Let this nation take 
timely warning from Israel's fate, lest we despise the 
providences that have saved us, and fall more sadly, more 
deeply, and less pitied. This nation is not yet beyond the 
danger line. We have still to combat the sins inherent in 
the make-up of our social life. We have yet to fight 



15 

against the iniquities which the tide of emigration is pour- 
ing in among us ; against false political theories that are 
claiming recognition in our national creed ; against infidel- 
ity, Sabbath desecration, and the superstition of false 

religious worship. Dangers threaten us on every side 

danger to our Constitution, to our national life, to our 
religion, and to our social life. Israel worshipped strange 
gods and went astray, and so may we if we suffer ourselves 
to be beguiled from the true path. One evil above all 
others finds its stronghold in a mistaken and perverted 
public sentiment. We worship at the shrine of Bacchus 
and pay heavy tribute to his priests. Intemperance stalks 
boldly among us — a crime against society, a sin against 
humanity, and a reproach to our boasted civilization. It 
swallows up the good that would lift men up, counteracts 
the best efforts of the Church, and sows poverty and crime, 
and drags its victims to the lowest depths. Think of the 
profanity, the immorality which float like a pestilence into 
the atmosphere from this sin. We need to battle against 
this iniquity with all the combined moral influence of 
Church, State and Society. 

Another danger that threatens our political welfare is the 
corruption which the false teaching of foreign emigration is 
bringing among us— socialism, in its most offensive form ; 
anarchy, with its unreasoning ignorance ; infidelity, in its 
most repulsive garb, and Old World political heresies with 
a total want of appreciation of the beneficence of our institu- 
tions. These evils are too great to be counteracted by the 
education of our schools. We must add the missionary 
efforts of the Church and the individual influences of all 
thinking men. The evil is among us, and cannot be thrust 
aside. It must be met, held in check, and remedied. We 
must uphold the truth of the Gospel, observe the sanctity 
of the Sabbath, preserve the purity of our home life, and 
fearlessly educate against the superstitions of a false faith. 
We may well ask, " Who is sufficient for these things ?" 
"Hitherto hath the Lord helped us," and He is still upon 
our side. Shall we be unmistakably upon His side ? 



16 

Comrades of the Grand Army, your responsibility in 
this work is of no small import. For you to-day 
"The trumpet of the Gospel sounds, 
With an inviting voice." 

It calls you to repentance. It calls you to the defence of 
the Gospel and of Christ's Kingdom, just as the liberty 
bugle called you, years ago, to the defence of the Consti- 
tution and the Union. It calls you to rally under the 
blood-stained banner of the Cross, with the same valor 
with which you gathered under your country's banner, 
and expects you to fight as bravely for God's cause as you 
went forth and fought for the old flag and for your firesides 
when the nation's life was in clanger. 

There will be no bloodshed or mortal wounds, there will 
be no broken hearts or severed home ties, there will be no 
sorrow or weeping for loved ones who shall not return 
again, there will be no hospitals or prison-pens, no weary 
marches, no hunger, no thirst, and no privation. The 
warmth of God's love will cheer you on. The light of 
His countenance will make glad your pathway. His 
Spirit will be your guide, His strong arm your defence, 
and His everlasting bounty your reward. " Hitherto the 
Lord hath helped us." 

As I look back over the past and recount His provi- 
dences, as I turn and look far clown into the future,^ and 
see before the onward march of our people the fiery pillar, 
the cloud and the manna, I recognize the guiding and 
giving hand of God and rejoice in His presence among us. 
As I behold the nation building firmly upon its immovable 
foundation of faith in God, and see it rising higher and 
higher toward the eternal throne, as I see an exalted citi- 
zenship approaching the estate of the angels, as I see the 
great truths which make men holy and happy asserting 
their dominion over the land, I thank God most heartily for 
the revelation of His Word and the gift of His Son. I thank 
Him for a free Gospel and a free Government and a free 
people, and pray that the Ark of His Covenant shall forever 
abide with us and His presence be manifested in every heart. 






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